


Charlie Bradbury Deserves Better

by charliescastiel



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Episode: s10e21 Dark Dynasty, Gen, TW: Blood, TW: Violence, canon character death, seriously it's awful, why did I write this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-04
Updated: 2015-06-04
Packaged: 2018-04-02 19:01:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4071058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charliescastiel/pseuds/charliescastiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>10.21 coda. Charlie's last moments.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Charlie Bradbury Deserves Better

**Author's Note:**

> This is awful. It's four am and I'm still grieving, I will delete this in the morning.  
> Forgive me.

The last few months had been some of the most frightening and difficult of her life, and she had spent the past year fighting a magical war in Oz.  
Sure, she wasn’t expecting to be vacationing across Europe on her search for the Book of the Damned, but she definitely wasn’t expecting to be relentlessly pursued from the moment the book reached her hands. She definitely preferred the flying monkeys. At least in that universe she had a gorgeous and kick ass lady by her side.  
She was exhausted, way past burnt out, but she had to keep going. For Dean. Dean who was her brother, who she loved, the family she’d never had. The apocalyptic drama never ended for those boys, and Charlie had almost come to terms with the fact that this was her life now too. She could accept that, because she was saving people and that made it worth it, right? She wasn’t resentful, though she dreamed of retiring by the beach somewhere where no monsters would ever find her. Perhaps she was a monster magnet after all.  
She wonders what she did so wrong in life to deserve the string of shitty things that keep happening to her, she genuinely wonders if she is cursed but decides against that.  
She didn't think it would end like this.  
She locks herself in the bathroom, pacing backwards until she hits the wall and collapses against it. She calls Sam but she isn’t sure if she remembers how to speak.  
Her hands are shaking so hard she can’t feel them anymore, she can feel her heart beating in her chest. She holds back a sob of fear, trying desperately to keep quiet as she waits for the files to upload. She hears Dean’s words through the phone but she doesn’t listen.  
She closes her eyes, praying to whoever is listening that Sam and Cas get the email, that they understand what it means and that they can find a way to save Dean.  
She jumps with every crash from the next room, knowing he grows closer with every second. She watches the upload percentage, breathing from the first time once it reaches a hundred percent. She knows what she must do now, she pulls herself to her feet, she knows this is it.  
She raises the laptop above her head and brings it down hard against the sink. It shatters and the other room goes silent.  
She stands there, waiting and afraid. She is strong, she is brave and she thinks she can win this fight. She hopes that she can. The door busts open, and they stare at each other. Each waiting for the first move, she lunges first. She doesn’t consider herself an aggressive person, but her time in Oz taught her a lot. Dark Charlie stirs, punching Styne hard in the jaw, then kneeing him hard in the chest.  
He falters but comes back quickly. Too quickly. He wipes the blood from his mouth then laughs, it makes her feel sick. She finds her strength again and dodges one hit but takes the other, she thinks she broke a rib. She cries out in pain and grips the knife tighter.  
She stands tall, biting her lip to keep the pain at bay. She tries to hold back the tears building in her eyes but they fall freely, clouding her vision. She raises the hand holding the knife, swinging it upwards and catching his face. He curses.  
She knows the moment she is going to lose, the knife flailing in her grip. She is terrified but she tries not to let it show on her face, she doesn’t think she succeeds. She screams as her own knife catches her, her wrist twisted backwards and the man smiles. She feels sick, she is embarrassed, she feels so weak. She will not give up though, she will not stop fighting.  
She isn’t supposed to die this way, she feels so alone, abandoned. She's backed into a corner, folded in on herself. She looks up to the tall window on the other side of the bathroom, she could've fit through that. She berates herself because it’s her fault for leaving Castiel, she was so naive and stupid. She hopes that Dean can forgive her for working behind his back, she hopes that Cas doesn’t blame himself, she hopes that Sam doesn’t have to lose anyone else.  
She thinks it might be painless when it finally happens, but she isn’t sure. She tries so hard to let go of everything, but she knows she screams anyway. She feels herself fall backwards but she has no control. She hits the bathtub hard, pain searing through her head. Rowena’s words rattle through her, because she was right, then everything fades into nothing.  
She lies there, still. Her body covered in blood and contorted in disgusting ways, disregarded as if she doesn’t matter at all. Her eyes are closed but her face isn’t peaceful, her own blood stained knife lies on the floor beside her.  
The bathtub is cold but she is still warm. Everything about this picture is wrong.  
Charlie was light, she was love. Charlie was a genius and a fighter, she was brave and magical. Charlie was passionate and incredible and she never turned her back on those who needed her the most, no matter what it cost her. Charlie’s smile was more beautiful than sunlight and her laugh was contagious.  
She had suffered so much, lost so much yet her perspective on life never dimmed. She carried the pain and made it part of her, it made her stronger, more complex, more devoted. She wasn’t without her flaws, but she was good and she hopes her life reflects that.  
Charlie deserved to grow up with both her parents guiding her, to get a full ride to the college of her dreams, to see the world and fall in love and adopt a dog.  
Charlie Bradbury deserved better, in her life and in her death.  
“Merry Christmas.” She gasps.


End file.
